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Given her precedent for literal dressing, one might have assumed that The Duchess of Cambridge would wear florals for her appearance at The Chelsea Flower Show today. Not so. Instead Kate turned to a grass-green coat-dress by Catherine Walker, for the outing - which saw her and Prince William smelling the Princess Charlotte Chrysanthemum, a flower named after their daughter.

It's not the first time we've seen The Duchess wearing this dress - she first debuted it in Canberra on her 2014 tour of Australia with Prince William. But that doesn't mean that her outfit is not thought-through. Indeed, in a way, The Duchess couldn't have chosen to wear a more appropriate designer to the Royal Family's favourite flower event, given Catherine Walker started her work in Chelsea and went on to work extensively with Princess Diana.

The last time Kate wore the Catherine Walker dress in CanberraCredit:
Eddie Mulholland

Walker started selling clothes in 1976, when she used to walk down the King's Road in London holding a basket of her designs. Soon after she set up her first shop on Sydney Street in Chelsea - and it fast became the go-to destination for event dressing for the 1980's Sloane, including most famously Princess Diana.

French-born Walker first started working with Diana shortly after she married Prince Charles and went on to design over 1,000 dresses for the Princess, including the black dress she was buried wearing. After Princess Diana's divorce, Walker is credited with helping create so-called 'defiant' frocks, such as the black backless dress she wore the night Prince Charles went on national TV to admit his affair.

It's not the first time that Kate has opted to wear Catherine Walker's designs, in an apparent homage to her late mother in law. On her royal tour of Canada in 2011 she wore a grey sheath dress by Catherine Walker, on the day after what would have been Diana's 50th birthday.

It's perhaps also appropriate that this week the team behind Catherine Walker (the eponymous designer died in 2010), are doing their own tribute to the Chelsea Flower Show. On Wednesday 25th May, nine models will parade down the Kings' Road wearing evening dresses from the house’s Spring/Summer 2016 collection, accessorised with floral headpieces inspired by the English country garden. Including, perhaps, a dress we may well see Kate wearing herself in the not too distant future.